Stolen an Apple watch? Want to pawn it off? Good news!

It's not like the owner can lock it down, after all

Apple's $17,000 watch is shockingly easy to re-use when stolen – so much so that it's sure to be an even more attractive target to thieves than iPhones.

Multiplereports show that the Cupertinian arm candy lacks any sort of remote wipe or locking ability. What's more, they can easily be wiped and paired with a new phone without knowing the passcode.

As a result, it would be simple for criminals to steal Apple watches from vulnerable fanbois and re-sell the units on the black market, without fear of the devices being locked and rendered useless by their rightful owners.

That's not true of the latest iPhones. Since 2013, iOS devices have included a feature called Activation Lock that allows their owners to pinpoint their locations, lock them remotely, and optionally wipe their contents. Why Apple chose not to include a similar feature in the Apple Watch is anybody's guess – especially when its lack of theft-deterrent features has landed it in hot water before.

In fact, Apple only added Activation Lock to iOS 7 after Michael Bloomberg, who was then the mayor of New York City, blamed the iPhone theft boom for an increase in the city's overall crime rate, at a time when the rates of most other forms of crime was going down.

Cupertino released the Apple Watch last month to great fanfare, and fanbois appear to have eaten it up, despite its hefty price point. The wristslab runs from $350 for a rubber-strapped unit, all the way to an eye-watering $17,000 for a model made out of gold – yet preorders were so numerous that Apple had to extend its waitlist period to several weeks.

But why wait? And why pay full price? It seems that soon you should be able to head over to your local seedy street corner and get one at a significant discount. ®